PARTICLE Photon Wi-Fi Connectivity Development Board with Headers for IoT Projects and Prototyping

Got this little board about 2 months ago. It was a bit difficult for me to get it going and running the way I wanted I believe cause i'm used to arduino's and ESPs that use the arduino IDE. With the particle they follow a close structure and syntax but there are some differences and can throw people off. After a little tinkering you'll finally get it. At least... I did.While the code can be bit of a struggle i'm very impressed on their product overall. The little chip has multiple analog inputs which is more then you'll find on the standard esp. The "status led" of the chip is RGB and does a fantastic job of showing the status of the device. I actually have used it numerous times trying to debug code and what not. Something I didn't like is by default it publishes to a cloud platform. I'm not a big fan of cloud based structuring so I opt'd to use a MQTT library I found to transmit the data I needed to my local server.Something that is extremely smooth is getting the device connected to your wifi. With an ESP unless your running Tasmota or some other firmware, you'll have to include your wifi and password credentials in your code. With the photon it comes with a firmware somewhat similar to those, it manages all the connection parameters separate making it easy to share your code without having to check if you exposed any confidential information.Overall I give it 5 stars, its a bit of a pain to code at times. It has a great firmware, Very well designed. If I had to complain about anything. I'd say I have to complain about the available memory it has. For the projects I use its fine, if you really needed to burst past the memory it offers I'd recommend the ESP32 or using a photon with a serial connection to a secondary controller.

What a great IOT development platform. Quick, easy to hook up with IFTTT. A handful of lines of code and IFTTT makes for a huge range of possibilities. I got it in the mail and had Alexa and IFTTT controlling it (and a relay shield) in a couple of hours.Keep in mind it's a WiFi integrated, Arduino-like platform with the limitations you'd expect with an Arduino. On the other hand, with IFTTT integration built in, it's hard to image needing a lot more for simple IOT applications.You program it on the web using a Arduino sketch-like UI. I've had a few goofy issues with the WebUI, like added libraries won't compile then when you restart the project and add them again it works. Or the UI page freezes, But even with that, the platform is amazing.[Update]I've completed several projects now using the photon. You can build amazing things with a Photon, the Photon Battery Shield and a device. The most recent project was helping my daughter (a soon to be college junior) with an internship project at a community water plant. They needed a way to get texts when there was a leak in the water systems. A photon, photon battery shield, an automotive PSI sensor and a case was all that took. Now using the particle cloud, IFTTT and ubidots, they can find out the status anywhere.A couple of things to note: Chrome seems to work better than Edge when using their Web based IDE. I've fried two particles with seemingly minor solder bridges. So be sure to carefully inspect your work before powering it up.[Update - Aug 2018]I'm still using the Photon is projects. I had one fail last fall in a harsh environment (In a industrial environment - sealed in a waterproof box). It was easy to replace, but it just shows the particle is useful, but perhaps not terribly robust. Even with that, I've used them in many projects and try to keep a couple in my project box just in case.

This thing is AWESOME, so easy to get it "online". Cheap way to have a module that you can do "whatever" with. I use it to send me an alert if my home burg alarm goes off, no monitoring fees!! And it can be battery powered for a LONG time. Im gonna get more, so much you can do with it.

I like the particle photon but after using the ESP8266 and just writing C for that device I prefer the traditional compile and push of the bin to the device. The eco-system for the photon seems great for people getting into this but I wonder if its needed?The device is great and the form factor far exceeds the ESP8266 v3's but the development expierence was too involved. Wifing to the device and doing a bunch of wacky stuff is not what I want to do as a software engineer. I shelved the photon and will probably pass it on to my daughter in the months ahead for her to tinker with. If you are experienced in this stuff you may want to get something that is more to the point and less on the rails.

As a hobbyist tinkerer, working with the Particle Photon is extremely satisfying. Sure, I have boards that I paid half as much for, but the value of the Particle environment is worth it to me for most projects. For that extra money you get:- A very compact board. The Photon is 35% smaller than my Feather Huzzah.- Intuitive Wi-Fi setup. Instead of connecting via USB and programming your Wi-Fi credentials, it initially creates its own Wi-Fi network which you connect to, securely enter your credentials, and then it does its own setup.- A web console platform where you can manage, monitor, view events, send functions and retrieve variables, edit and flash your code wirelessly with the web IDE, and more.- A development IDE based on Atom that allows you code, compile in the cloud or locally, flash wirelessly, etc.- Command-line interface that lets you do a lot of the above via your system terminal.- Fantastic documentation. Check out docs.particle.io and see for yourself.- Lots of other neat little perks, like an RGB status LED with over a dozen status indications.This particular board uses a lesser-known Cypress Wi-Fi chip, which seems to work fine. The range may be a little worse than others, I would suspect due to the tiny size of the chip and lack of a visible antenna. For the most part it has been great for my purposes.If you're trying to keep your project under a minimal budget, go for a NodeMCU. Otherwise, spring a few extra bucks and get a LOT more bang.

Sobre la placa photon, excelente!. Muy compacta, se programa tipo arduino o NodeMCU. La empresa Particle incluye una nube propia desde donde se escribe el codigo para flashear la plaquita. Multiples servicios, documentación y posibilidades infinitas.El servicio de entrega de Amazon es inobjetable, como siempre con prime me llegó 2 días antes!

This is my first play around with IOT microcontroller, it's fun to see it work so fast through the cloud. Currently experimenting with it, but could definitely see uses for building home projects.

ne ho comprati 2 e sono entrambi inutilizzati. per rimediare ho comprato un arduino con cui mi sto trovando molto bene.ho avuto un sacco di problemi con queste schede photon...a saperlo prima non le avrei comprate

So much potential. out of the box setup is seamless, and the online IDE is great to work with.A bit more expensive than a 'bare' ESP module e.g. nodeMCU , and I had my concerns about being locked into a cloud platform.But the productivity gains are well worth it, and the Particle community is a great resource.

Fonctionne très bien consommation moins élevé que le Core en ayant plus de possibilité.Pour répondre au commentaire précédent il faut contacter le support qui est très réactif (répond même le dimanche) j'ai eu le même problème sur un Core et en 3 mails le problème était réglé.